


Torchwood Angels 2

by christinchen



Series: Torchwood Angels [2]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Movie Fusion, Community: casestory, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-30
Updated: 2011-06-30
Packaged: 2017-10-20 21:44:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/217389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/christinchen/pseuds/christinchen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The theft of the witness protection profile database. The major crime families on a murder and revenge spree. Old allies and new enemies. Or was it new allies and old enemies?<br/>The past is about to catch up with more than one of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Torchwood Angels 2

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to thank everyone who listened to me whining about my writer's block, and who encouraged me or kicked my arse to get this done nevertheless.
> 
> Further I'd like to thank everyone that read this part or the last and who told how much they loved this universe and asked me to continue. This is the last part ~~unless they make another movie~~ , but since there were so many details and stories that are in the past of this universe that are all written out in my head but made it into the story hardly at all, I've been _thinking about_ writing a prequel of sorts, about how Ianto and Jack met. Let me know what you think!

Ianto woke to Jack pressing soft kisses to his neck.  
"Morning, Handsome."

"Morning, Jack." Ianto turned in Jack's arms and pulled his lover down for a sleepy kiss. Which Jack returned all too happily.

Ianto wound his arms around Jack's neck, his fingertips brushed against a shirt collar. He pulled away and let is eyes drift over Jack's appearance. He was fully dressed, from his typical light blue shirt to the trademark red braces.  
"Why are you dressed already?" he asked.

"Owen called." Jack settled onto the bed next to Ianto.

"For a status report or to bitch?" Ianto snorted.

"A bit of both." Jack laughed. "They got Frobisher and they're back from Mongolia. And apparently he always has to do the shitty parts, something about Tosh putting him in a box." Jack shrugged.

Ianto laughed. "Yeah, she's still mad at him for the whole thing with Martha."

Jack sighed. "Those two really need to work things out, even though my office has a strict no-dating policy."

"Oh, really? A strict no-dating policy?" Ianto raised an eyebrow at him. "And what would you call this then?" he asked, gesturing to the arm Jack had wound around his waist.

"Hmmm..." Jack pretended to think for a moment. "Employment with benefits?"

Ianto laughed when Jack rolled on top of him in one swift movement and leaned down to steal a kiss.

Ianto made a soft protesting sound when Jack's hands started to wander down his body. "When are the others due back?"

"Not for another hour or so." Jack whispered against Ianto's neck and started to kiss his way down his body.

"Jack stop." Ianto forced Jack off him and sat up. "I have to get ready."  
He moved to get up from the bed, only to have Jack try and pull him back again.

"No." Ianto sighed finally. "Do you have any idea of the jokes I get to hear from Owen already about sleeping with my boyfriend in my bosses bed? I don't want to make things worse by being late."

"It's only jokes." Jack exclaimed, only to see Ianto's expression darken.

"I don't want my private life to be the topic of office gossip. Is that so wrong?" he asked angrily. "You're after all keeping your life off topic too."

He regretted it the moment the words were out of his mouth.  
"Jack. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

Jack's face closed off. "Not by choice."

With that he left the room, leaving Ianto behind.  
"Shit." he whispered, before getting up to get ready. He wouldn't have any time issues now, Ianto thought bitterly.

***

"So how is the move going?" Tosh asked when Gwen had settled into the sofa next to her, gratefully taking the offered from Ianto's hand.

"Slowly and exhausting." she sighed. "For some reason Rhys seemed to be under the impression that he could take that battered excuse of a sofa he owns into our new flat."

"How horrible." Owen rolled his eyes before making an impatient gesture at Ianto to hurry up with his coffee. "Oi, did loverboy shag your brains out once too much this morning?"

"Owen!" Tosh hissed the moment a coffee cup was slammed onto the table in front of him, coffee spilling over.

When Owen opened his mouth to complain, Gwen elbowed him in his ribs. He was left watching Ianto disappear from the conference room without a word.  
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Gwen hissed.

"What's wrong with _me_? He's the one..." Owen started, only to be interrupted by Tosh.

"He hasn't said more than a few words since I arrived here half an hour ago."

"Do you think they broke up?" Gwen asked.

"Him and that guy?" Owen asked. "Come on, they weren't that serious."

"Owen, that night after the Rattigan Case" Gwen replied, "I was too tired to even think about calling Rhys and he asked him to come over to Jack's house. Doesn't that tell you something?"

Before they could dwell on the topic of Ianto's relationship longer, the phone rung and Jack's voice came over the speakers.  
"Good morning, Angels. First of all: Great work in Mongolia, but I'm afraid the case has taken a new turn."

With that the screen on the far wall activated. John Frobisher sitting at his work desk appeared on the video link.  
"Morning."

"Morning. How are you feeling?" Tosh asked the man they had only rescued yesterday night.

"A couple fractured rips, but I'll live." Frobisher answered.

Jack continued to speak after a moment.  
"Over the years the the government has worked on many important projects, but never one with so many innocent lives at stake: The Witness Protection Program."

"People who have testified against major crime figures are being relocated and given new identities for protection." Frobisher started. "The identities for these witnesses and their families are protected by a program called _HALO: Hidden Alias List Operation_. This list is encrypted on two titanium rings. The data on each ring is undecipherable on it's own, but when the two rings are read together their codes unlock each other."

"Who wears the rings?" Gwen asked.

"One is worn by the Prime Minister. It was stolen by my abductors." Frobisher explained. "The other is worn by the Head of Police. He was killed this morning. That leaves both rings in the open."

"We know someone had contacted all the major crime families with an offer to sell the list." Jack added. "One of the protective witnesses, Mark Brisco, was found dead this morning in this home. We need to get the HALO rings back before the list is sold."

"Okay, we start at the house of Mark Brisco." Gwen started planing. "See if that leads us to the rings."

***

Ianto took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. Then, before he had a chance to reconsider, he raised his and and knocked on the wall he had been standing in front for longer than he was willing to admit.

The wall slid open seconds later to reveal a just as nervous looking Jack.  
"Hey."

"Hey. I..." Ianto sighed. "I came to apologize."

"I'm the one who has to apologize." Jack gestured for Ianto to come inside his small office.

Jack settled back into his office chair, before he continued:  
"I got that call about the missing HALO rings right after Owen's. I kinda freaked..."

"HALO rings?" Ianto asked, perching on the edge of Jack's desk.

"Where were you during that conference call just now?" Jack asked slightly bemused.

"Let's just say one of Owen's comments hit a raw nerve just then and I... kinda freaked?" Ianto slowly returned Jack's smile.

They had hit a few bumps along the road since that morning when the team had walked in on them asleep in bed. Partially to his own insecurities, Ianto was willing to admit that much.

But he couldn't help the way his heart swelled when Jack took his hand resting on his own thigh and squeezing his fingers.  
He was still ridiculously in love with Jack, even after more than five years of their secret non-relationship.

Ianto couldn't help a slight flinch at the pain of the injured skin of his hand being touched.

"Who did you hit?" Jack asked, worriedly inspecting the broken skin.

"The wall." Ianto shrugged.

"Why?" Jack was looking at him as if he had just told him he had spend the last half an hour repeatedly hitting his head against the wall. Which he had refrained from, if only because he didn’t want to hear any jokes from Owen about bumps on his head.

"Jack," Ianto sighed, untangling his hand from Jack's. "I just..."  
There was never going to be more between Jack and him, Ianto had long ago accepted that. Or at least he had thought he had.  
He would never be able to introduce Jack to his family, tell is colleagues who the guy he was seeing really was or even just go a normal date with him.

He loved Jack and he wouldn't risk what they had for anything, but sometimes Ianto couldn't help but want just that bit more.

"It's nothing." Ianto finally said, shaking his head. "I'm just in a bad mood."

Jack didn't look convinced. But the small nod he received was enough to let him know that he was willing to let it slide, for the moment.  
"So, the HALO rings..."

***

By the end of the day Ianto still couldn't shake Jack's words off.

He didn't know much about Jack's past. And Jack still hadn't told him much. Only that he was on the list of the Witness Protection Program. And that said list was now stolen, ready to be delivered to the highest bidding criminal.

He knew that there were people who wanted Jack dead. Not just the ones that Jack had helped put behind bars with his work for Torchwood.

That brought him back to not knowing anything about Jack's past.

Jack had confided him that he hadn't always been 'on this side of the law'. What ever that meant. He couldn't imagine Jack breaking the law, not without a good reason.  
But what was a _good_ reason and what wasn't?

Working for Jack seemed to come with a certain ability to stretch most laws at will. Ianto knew that, he was after all the one doing the clean up, endlessly explaining to police officers why that thousands of dollars worth helicopter was stolen, flown by an not qualified person and crashed into a lake.

Lost in his thoughts Ianto startled when arms wrapped themselves around his middle.  
"That cup isn't going to get any cleaner, you know?" chuckled an amused voice next to his ear, before pressing a soft kiss to his neck.

"Sorry. Long day." he sighed, leaning further into the touch.

"Tosh and Owen left half an hour ago." Jack murmured, steering Ianto away from the kitchen sink.

"Together?" Ianto asked, smiling when Jack took his hands and dried them with a towel.

"Hmm, nope." Jack spun him around gently, pressing his front to Ianto's. "But how about _we_ leave together?"

"Romantic advances to an employee?" Ianto smirked.

"Who said anything about romantic?" Jack grinned back, crowding Ianto against the cupboard. "I happen to have a perfectly comfortable bed and a very nice closet, which just happens to have quite a few suits in your size in it."

"Really is that so?" Ianto asked, pressing a series of small kisses along Jack's jaw.

"Yeah, no one will even notice you stayed the night." Jack shuddered and moaned softly when he felt Ianto's teeth gaze over his skin, ever so gently nipping on his ear.

"Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Stop talking and take me home."

Jack's hand was resting on Ianto thigh the entire car ride and Ianto couldn't help smiling, they were okay.

No matter how good Jack may consider himself at pretending everything was fine, sex was the one thing that didn't happen between them when one of them was still mad at the other.

Ianto was all but physically hauled out of the car seconds after the arrived in their drive way and dragged up to the bedroom.

Jack's hand went straight for the zipper of his trousers the second their lips connected. Smirking against his lips when he found Ianto already half hard.

"Impatient much?" Ianto whispered teasingly against Jack's lips, steering them both towards the bed.

"Just a bit." Jack grinned before tipping them both backwards onto the mattress.

Ianto laughed breathlessly before crushing his lips to Jack's in another messy kiss.

Jack tugged on his clothes with hands so uncoordinated that Ianto felt the need to worry for the well being of his suit.

Still he pushed shamelessly into Jack’s touch when the other man finally got his trousers down. Pulling back from the kiss, Ianto hooked his finger under the black fabric, sliding them down his hips, thighs, and to the floor. He had just enough time to shrug out if his jacket before Jack is claiming his lips again.

"Fuck, Ianto." he moaned roughly.

"Not if you don't hurry up." Ianto whispered back. His breath hitching as Jack continued to stroke him through his boxers. He was hard now leaking needily against his own stomach and straining underwear.

"Who's impatient now?"

Instead of answering Ianto kicked off his boxers, moaning loudly as Jack licked over the head of his hard cock.

Impatiently reaching over to the nightstand beside their bed, his fingers were frantically scrambling over the surface, finally closing around the tube of lube he was looking for.

His back arched off the bed when Jack gave a low chuckle and took him in his mouth in one smooth movement.

Hot, wet heat surrounding him. Ianto felt gentle hands pressing him back into the bed, then slide up his sides, over his chest, along his arm.

Jack hollowed his cheeks and _sucked_ just the moment his fingers closed around the tube in Ianto's hand.

And Ianto was pretty sure the sounds leaving his mouth that moment were nothing but embarrassing, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

Jack kept bringing him closer and closer to the edge. His tongue doing things to him that Ianto was pretty sure should be illegal. A single, slippery finger circling his hole patiently.

"Jack." he breathed. "Jack, please."

Jack pulled off his cock with a obscene sound, before grinning: "All you had to do was ask."

"Bastard."

"I'll have to know my parents were married."

Part of Ianto's brain filed the information away for further and much later thinking about, the rest simply shut off when Jack pressed just his tip of his finger inside him.

"More." he demanded and was for once not met with a teasing comment or any indication from Jack to continue torturing him.

One, two more fingers inside him, preparing him. Jack was pressing soft kisses to his overheated skin. Up his neck, along his jawline and finally meeting his lips in a hungry kiss.

Ianto's own hand went wandering. And he discovered that Jack was still completely dressed. He had been to taken up in his own pleasure earlier to notice.

Trying to make up for it Ianto began pulling on Jack's shirt, but didn't get much further then unbuttoning and pulling it out of his trousers before he was met with the obstacle of not wanting Jack to remove his hands from his body.

Instead he concentrated on Jack trousers. His hard cock was visible under the stained fabric and Ianto smoothed a hand over the bulge, giving Jack a firm squeeze.

Jack's answering groan sounded almost pained.

"Don't do that, if you want _this_ to go somewhere tonight." he pressed out between clenched teeth, wriggling his fingers on the emphasis.

Ianto didn't answer, but gently lowered the zipper on Jack's pants and shoved them along with Jack's boxers down his legs as far as he could reach.

He felt Jack remove his fingers and heard moments later the cap of the bottle of lube being opened again.

Ianto groaned loudly when Jack stroked his aching cock with a sticky hand a few times before slicking himself up.

Jack pressed closer to him, aligning their bodies perfectly.

Ianto brought his legs up, crossing his ankles behind Jack's back. Then he felt Jack guiding himself inside him.

He was hiding a low whimper of pleasure in Ianto's sweat-damp hair and Ianto knew they both wouldn't last.

The rhythm Jack set was fast, his trusts irregular.

Ianto heard his harsh panting next to his ear. His own shaky breaths were lost somewhere in Jack's hair. His fingers left angry red marks on his back as he felt his orgasm approaching fast.

"Jack. Close." he panted.

"Yes." came the reply. The meaning lost somewhere in the jumble of fingers digging into his hips, a hand wrapping itself around his cock, jerking him roughly.

He bucked up hard into Jack when he came moments later. Jack buried his face in Ianto's neck and one, two, three trusts later he followed, collapsing heavily on top of him.

"Shit." Ianto moaned and gave Jack a weak push, causing him to pull out and roll of him. "I don't think I had sex with my clothes on since I was a teenager."

"Yes, but this time you didn't come in your pants." Jack chuckled, pressing a soft kiss to Ianto's shoulder.

"No, but I think I came on yours." he grinned, surveying the damage he had done to the garment in question.

Jack just gave half hearted shrug and curled quite content into Ianto's side.

***

 

"Jack, stop it!" Ianto scolded, trying to fight of his lover's wandering hands and pulling up his jeans at the same time.

"Those trousers are awfully tight." Jack commented, looping his fingers through the belt loops and pulling Ianto flush to his naked front.

"That's because we're going to a club." Ianto pulled a black t-shirt over his head, trying not to hit Jack in the face with his elbows while doing so.

"Well, you never wear clothes like this for me." Jack pouted childishly.

"How about we make a deal?" Ianto asked, gently disentangling himself from Jack's embrace. "You let me go now so I can get to that stupid club and we can get this stupid stakeout over with and when I'm back you get to strip me out of every single piece of this outfit. Deal?"

"Deal." with a quick peck to the lips Jack pushed Ianto out of the door. "The quicker you're gone the sooner I get to shag you."

***

"What the hell is it that couldn't have waited till tomorrow and you had to drag me out of bed for?" Ianto asked, flopping down beside Tosh.

"What the hell were you doing in bed at a Friday night at ten thirty?" Tosh asked.

Ianto silently raised a eyebrow, Tosh blushed furiously and the same time Owen started snickering.

"Well, Tosh found traces of a certain type of cocktail in some spit we got from today's dead guy's face." Owen explained.

"This is the only place in town that sells it." Tosh added, only looking up from her phone for a split second. After a moment it gave a beep, barely audible over the volume of the music.

"It's exactly the same drink." she said gesturing to her own cocktail. "Though mine has more alcohol in it." she added frowning.

"So, were looking for a guy." Owen took a gulp from his own drink. "The always put more booze in chick's drinks – get's them drunk faster." he grinned slyly.

"I don't even want to know." Ianto muttered. "I'll get myself a drink." he added louder and left for the bar.

"The drink's on me." A voice said right from behind him and Ianto watched a hand throw some coins on the bar. He noted a tattoo between thumb and forefinger: _viii_. It looked new. The skin surrounding it still red and raw.

"Thanks, I can pay for my own drink." Ianto said, handing his money to the barkeeper and picking up his gin tonic, making his way back to the table.

"Come on, eye candy. Give a man a chance." Ianto risked a glance at the man when he slid into his seat. He was tall, his face angular. Brown, slicked back hair revealing a slightly receding hairline.

"Problem?" Owen asked.

"Not at all." the stranger replied, pulling himself a chair. "I was just going to buy the lady a drink." he said his eyes on Tosh. Well, on her cleavage.

Talk about attention span, Ianto thought with a snort.

"I already have one." came Tosh's sharp reply.

"Pity." the man said, but obediently got up from his chair. "Ask for that drink with just a splash of grapefruit next time." he said, already walking off.

Tosh looked at them both open mouthed.

"What?" Owen asked impatiently.

"This is the only place where they sell that particular brand of whiskey." Tosh started. "They make a similar kind of cocktail pretty much anywhere. But never with that kind of whiskey and always without the grapefruit juice. Plus when I asked the barman for this drink with grapefruit he gave me a really weird look." she finished, slightly out of breath.

"So, this might be our guy?" Ianto queried.

"Yes."

"Well, then." Owen jumped off his chair. "Let's get him checked out."

Not ten minutes later he had returned to the table, a confident smirk on his face.

"I have: his name, his phone number and his hotel room." Owen threw a piece of paper on the table. "And now, if you excuse me. There's a lady waiting for me to buy her a drink."

"I'm gonna need another cocktail." Tosh declared as they watched Owen chat up a pretty blonde across the room.

"Hey, were's Gwen anyways?" Ianto asked, in an attempt to stop his friend from drowning herself in booze.

"Home with the boyfriend." Tosh sighed. "Apparently having a domestic life makes up for late night stake outs."

Not very successful, Ianto berated himself.

When Ianto came home three hours later, after dropping of a completely wasted Tosh at her flat and making sure she would manage to get herself into bed safely, he found Jack curled up on top of the blanket on their bed.

His hair had dried in an odd shape, making it obvious to Ianto that he had fallen asleep minutes after taking a shower. He was wearing a low slung pair of pyjamas and a white t-shirt.

Ianto smiled softly at the sight, causing his heart to swell. He bit his lips when he couldn't help but think how cute Jack looked like this. Not that he would ever say this to Jack out loud. Because, while Jack admitted to being many things, handsome and dashing being quite up top on the list, cute wasn't. Oh no, Jack Harkness wasn't cute.

Well, except when he fell asleep waiting up for Ianto. But that was something Ianto would never tell.

Freshly showered and dressed in a pair of pyjamas as well Ianto slid into the bed, wrapping his arms around his lover's form from behind and tucking them both under the covers.

He rested his face against Jack's neck, pressing a gentle kiss to the sleep warm skin.

"Hmm? You're back already?" came the sleepy question seconds later.

"Yeah, it's late though. I didn't mean to wake you." Ianto smiled softly when Jack's eyes remained firmly closed, obviously not quite awake, but he still laced the fingers of their hands resting against his chest together.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep on you." he finally murmured into the pillow.

"That's okay." Ianto settled into the sheets, prepared to fall asleep any minute.

"Night, Jack." he whispered into the dark of the bedroom.

"Hmm. Love you, too." came the sleepy reply.  
Ianto fell asleep with a big smile on his face.

***

"Guess who I saw last night?" was the first thing out of Owen's mouth when he flopped down on the sofa in the conference-room the next morning. There was a down right gleeful grin on his face.

"I'm guessing she was blonde and had big boobs." Tosh muttered sourly.

"What crawled up her arse and died?" Owen asked before Ianto had the chance to shot him a warning or murderous look.

"It was blue and came with an umbrella." he said instead, handing Tosh an extra strong coffee.

"Cocktail." Tosh explained for Gwen's benefit, who had been looking helplessly confused. Tosh gave Ianto a thankful smile after taking a deep gulp of coffee.

He knew Jack was hoping that one day Owen would see sense and see that Tosh and feelings for her, but personally he didn't think that was going to happen. Owen saw Tosh as a colleague as a friend, but nothing more than that. And maybe it was best for them if Tosh got over Owen and finally moved on.

"So, who _did_ you meet last night?" Gwen asked, interrupting Ianto's thoughts.

Owen caught Ianto's glaze and smirked. Ianto frowned, he knew Jack hadn't been out last night. So who else could it be that Owen was talking about.

"Lisa Hallett."

Ianto felt as if the breath had been knocked out of him. Lisa, his ex-girlfriend. He hadn't seen her in years. Since she had left Torchwood almost five years ago to be precise.

"She used to work here. She was part of the very first Torchwood team." Tosh started, obviously not noticing Ianto's frozen composure. "She was really good with computers too. She set up the complete system of the HUB. The complete database system is her work."

Tosh sounded truly awed. And Ianto felt his throat close up when Owen's smirk grew. He didn't mind the teasing, he knew Owen meant nothing by it. But the breakup with Lisa had been nothing if not nasty and he'd rather not be reminded of it.

"Why did she leave?" Gwen asked, leaning forward, not wanting to miss anything. Office gossip was her area of specialization after all. "I mean I can't imagine going back to a normal job after having worked here."

"Oh, teaboy broke her heart." Owen grinned. "Isn't that right?"

Ianto said nothing.

"I still remember her face the day she stormed out of here." now he looked slightly dreamy. "I don't think I've ever seen someone yell quite that effectively at a pair of speakers."

"Why would she yell at Jack though, if it was Ianto broke who broke up with her?" sometimes Ianto hated the fact that Gwen was exceedingly talented when it came to picking up the small interpersonal things. It certainly had proven useful in cases, he just didn't appreciate it when he was the 'case'.

"That I never knew." Owen said, before facing Ianto and giving him a look that was pure respect. "Until I had a quick chat with her last night."

Dread was overcoming Ianto. _She had told him. She had fucking told Owen._

"She not very kindly referred to teaboy over here as, I quote, _lying, cheating arsehole_." Owen seemed impressed. Tosh and Gwen seemed stunned.

For a moment felt the same familiar, cold panic overcome him that had the day Lisa had left. He could lie, tell them Lisa was just angry, making things up. Make her out to be the crazy ex, that couldn't quite seem to let him go, even so many years later.

But then, it didn't matter now. After Lisa had left like that, Ianto had fallen apart in Jack's arms that night. He still remembered what Jack had quoted softly into his hair as he had held him.  
 _'Once it has begun, it doesn't matter under what circumstances true love began.'_

"Did you really cheat on her?" Gwen asked, her wide eyes seemed to beg him to tell her otherwise.

Ianto sighed and sat down on the sofa beside Tosh. At least she didn't seem to have a all that much formed opinion on everything.

"I did." Ianto finally said. He kept his head up, refusing to look down, refusing to feel ashamed. But at the same time he didn't quite dare to look at his friends and colleagues.  
"I don't know if it makes a difference or not, but I've been with that guy for more than five years now."

He heard three surprised gasps echo through the room. He could feel their eyes burning into him.

"That man, from the night at Jack's house, right?" Tosh asked.

He nodded, carefully meeting her eyes.

"You were in a relationship the entire four years we've known each other and you never said a word." now Tosh sounded just a bit miffed with him.

"It's just not that easy..." he started, not really sure how to explain. And not really sure how much Jack was okay with him saying anything at all.

"You know what else isn't easy?" came an amused voice over the speakers. Speak of the devil, Ianto thought with a relieved grin.  
"Getting your team's attention when they're quite busy with the latest office gossip."

"So, while you were grilling my employee about his private life" Jack didn't sound angry, Ianto noted, more a little amused. "I did a little digging into our enquiries from last night."

Ianto clicked the monitors on, again in full business mode.

A image of what appeared to be an advertisement appeared on the screen, showing a snapshot that Jack must have gotten from a security camera.

"He's clever, I have to give him that. I couldn't get one clear image of his face." Jack explained. "But I got this."

>   
> THE COAL BOWL - Duel in the Dirt  
> no rules, no limits  
> 

The image changed, showing now a smaller note on the piece of paper.

>   
> LEO  
> race #1  
> 

"Looks like you're going to a motocross race, angels."

***

Jack looked up and smiled when he heard a soft knock on the door to his office. There was only one person who knew where the entrance was.

"Come in." he called out.

Moments later Ianto walked in, carrying a small tray with two cups of coffee. He set them down on the desk between them, settling himself down on the chair opposite of Jack.

"Hey." Ianto murmured, feeling uncharacteristically shy.

"Hey yourself." Jack smiled softly. "Have we heard back from the race yet?" he asked.

Back to business as usual then. Ianto couldn't help to feel an odd sense of disappointment that Jack's didn't seem to at least acknowledge that the conversation this morning in the conference room had taken place.

"No not yet." Ianto answered. "I expect it will be at least another two hours if not more."

"Good." Ianto watched with a raised eyebrow as Jack drained his coffee in one go, before getting up and walking around the desk, pulling Ianto up to him.

Ianto smiled when Jack wrapped his arms loosely around his waist. He leaned gently in and pressed a soft, close-mouthed kiss to Jack's lips. Bringing his own hands up, he tangled them into Jack's hair, letting himself get carried away in the taste of Jack's mouth and the coffee he hadn't had the chance to drink himself and was now growing cold on the desk next to him. Not that he minded. Much.

Jack spun him around quickly and then proceeded to sit him down on his office chair.

Ianto grinned when Jack followed him down and dropped to his knees in front of him.  
"Kinky." he grinned at his lover.

Jack only laughed.  
"You're the one who made us sound like a old, boring couple."

"And blowing me in your office chair is going to change that?" Ianto smirked.

"Hey." now Jack was pouting. "I'll have you know that I'm neither old nor boring!"

Ianto felt his heart skip when Jack didn't deny them being a couple. Then felt just a bit silly for his underlying insecurities when it came to anything between Jack and him.

Jack lowered the zipper and button fastening his trousers, just enough that Ianto could clearly see his half-hard erection pushing insistently at his underwear, a small damp spot at the tip already forming.

"Eager, are we?" Jack teased, rubbing a practised hand over bulge, causing Ianto to sink back into the leather chair, spreading his legs further.

Jack, taking the more than obvious invitation on Ianto's part, carefully shuffled forward, so that he was directly between Ianto’s open legs and tucked his boxers down.

Ianto could feel Jack's hot breath come in slow, deliberate puffs of air hitting his now bare skin, making his head swim.

"Quit teasing." his own voice sounded far away and breathless. He ran a soft hand through Jack's hair, tucking him closer.

Slowly Jack leaned forward and sucked lightly. Ianto moaned deeply.

Jack opened his mouth wider, taking in more of Ianto's cock as Ianto watched it disappear between his Jack's eager lips.

He was sucking harder and harder and Ianto knew that he wouldn't last much longer.  
Moments later Ianto felt his body stiffen, coming down Jack's throat with a choked off sound.

He pulled Jack up into a messy kiss, his hands buried deeply in Jack's hair.

Jack moaned into his mouth, biting down on his lips.

Ianto felt him shuddering where he was pressed against him. And when he looked down, he saw that Jack had a hand pressed flat against the now damp front of his trousers.

"Who's impatient now?"

***

The door to the HUB opened and Ianto watched Owen limp inside, heavily supported by Tosh. Gwen coming in behind them behind, a young boy, maybe five years old, next to her. He took a fairly frightened glance around.

Ianto's attention was drawn from the kid, when he noticed Tosh making her way towards him, a sombre expression on her face.

"What happened?" he asked, feeling suddenly scared.

"Ianto..." Tosh trailed off, uncertainly. Then she reached into her jeans pocket, pulling out a slightly battered looking photo, handing it to him.

The face on the picture was familiar, if just a bit younger than he'd ever seen it, the name underneath was completely foreign.

"What's this?" he asked.

"We found that and two others on the killer." Tosh said gently. "They were all targets. All of them were in the witness protection program."

"They want to kill him." it wasn't a question. Ianto felt like the floor had been pulled from underneath his feed, dropping him into a dark, bottomless pit.

Tosh reached out a hand towards him, but Ianto turned around and all but ran to Jack's office. Not even bothering to knock, simply barging in.

"Ianto? I thought the others..." Jack trailed off seeing the look on Ianto's face.  
"What's wrong?" Jack was out of his chair, gently taking the shocked man's arms, guiding him into a chair.

Ianto thought how ironic it was that he was sitting in Jack's office chair with the man kneeling by his feet for the second time this day. Though the circumstances where so different.

"Jack." he started, taking a deep breath. "The killer... they found this on him..." Ianto handed the picture over with slightly shaky hands.

Jack stared at his long moments before looking up again. The naked fear in his eyes broke Ianto's heart.

He reached out a careful hand, not sure if the touch was welcome, he placed it on this own knee, palm facing up.

Jack took his hand a moment later, squeezing his fingers hard.

"That was my name before I went into the witness protection program eight years ago." Jack spoke softly, his eye again fixed on the picture.  
"I left the person I was back then long behind. And for some reason I had this insane hope that it would never catch up with me again." Jack gave a fake, almost hysteric laugh.

"What happened?" Ianto asked gently when Jack didn't continue.

"Years ago, I did quite a few things I'm not exactly proud of. Most of them were not legal. I stole, I robbed and much worse." Jack took a shaky breath.

"Then I fell for the worst guy in the entire universe. But he was really sweet and caring in the beginning. And I fell hard for him. I would have done anything for him. He had issues, I knew that: Alcohol, drugs, anger. But I still stayed with him for five years."

Jack gave Ianto's fingers another tight squeeze before continuing.  
"Then one night things went to hell. I watched John brutally murder two innocent people. Just like that. No reason, no regret. Nothing. He said he'd kill me if I ever told anyone."

"But you did." it wasn't a question not really.

"Eventually, I did, yes." Jack finally looked up. "I send him to prison, for fifteen years. Then I started a new life, as Jack Harkness and I build Torchwood."

Ianto leaned forward pressing a chaste kiss to Jack's lips.  
"And he picked the wrong guy if he thinks that he can get you over like that. Because the Jack I met and fell in love with won't let himself get down. He fights and so do his friends."

Jack grinned his whole composure brightening up immediately.

" _I_ won't let anybody hurt you." Ianto promised more serious now.

***

"Alright, angels. Let find out who's behind this." Jack's voice sounded still slightly shaky, but he seemed to have gained much of his composure back.  
More than Ianto could say for himself, he still felt shaken to the core by what Jack had told him about his past.

He had know bits and pieces, pierced together, allowing him a fuzzy glimpse at who Jack really was.  
Every now and then Jack would have let something slip, tell a story that told a bit more about himself. And Ianto would file it all away in his mind in a thick brown folder labeled Captain Jack Harkness.

If it really existed it would be slightly battered, Ianto thought to himself, creased, probably with coffee stains. Most of the pictures would be yellowed, some of them because they were old, some because Ianto had looked at them again and again, examined them and still had not found how they fit in the enigma that Jack was.

Or _Paul_ rather, how he had found out from the look he had at the picture Tosh and brought in from the man they had found today. Whether it really was the murderer they were looking for was still up to discussion.

Jack had said that it simply wasn't John's style to get himself killed on a low-profile job like that. So who was the guy they had found killed today? Who and more importantly where was John Hart and how had he escaped from prison? If he was out at all and not just pulling strings from the inside.

Ianto was startled from his thoughts how strange the name Paul sounded for Jack, by a hand closing around his elbow.

"Sit down, before you fall down." Owen groused, leading Ianto the the sofa the team had gathered on in front of the speaker set and sat him down.

"You're in shock." Gwen told him, patting his arm comfortingly.

"Just a bit." Ianto relented.

"Don't worry, I'll give him some of the good drugs later." Owen said.

"Actually, I think, I'll just make sure he gets home safely." Jack told them. "So, lets hear what happened today."

"Let's start in the beginning." Tosh said. "The dead guy was a low profile criminal. Car theft, drugs and a bank robbery he got caught up in that landed him in prison for two years. He got out half a year ago. He's been quiet until now. Murder doesn't seem like his style-"

"What about the robbery?" Owen asked.

"No one got hurt. He used an unloaded gun." Tosh shrugged. "My guess is that who ever is behind this got something on him."

"Maybe." Jack sounded thoughtful. "Which prison was he in?"

"Knox Road. Why?"

"That's were Hart is."

"Hart?" Owen tapped his chin. "I heard that name somewhere."

"John Hart." Tosh had pulled her laptop close and had pulled his police record up. Ianto caught a glance at the mugshot and felt himself freeze.

"I know him." he whispered.

"What!" Jack's voice sounded shrill, even over the speakers.

"The guy from the other night." he looked at Tosh for confirmation. "With the cocktails."

"Shit, you're right." she muttered.

"He killed two people eight years ago." Owen had pulled Tosh's laptop over and was now scrolling through the record. "I did the postmortem on the case. It wasn't pretty."

"The prime witness was a guy named Paul Miller." Owen shot Ianto a significant look. "You'd better make sure your man is safe."

Before he could answer a small voice cut in.  
"He killed my parents." the boy Gwen had brought in said.

"Oh Max, I'm sorry." Gwen said.

"Wait a minute." Tosh was typing fast now. "Allen Coffield. The guy we found dead the other day, his son was one of the murder victims they charged Hart for."

"That means Hart has the HALO rings." Gwen said.

"No, he couldn't." Jack negated. "He's still in prison."

"He's out." Gwen said suddenly, looking over Owen's shoulder at the display. "Here it says that he was released a week ago."

"That's simply not possible."

"Right. Let's for once play this by the book." Owen said. "Gwen, Max here is in our protective custody. Can you find somewhere safe for him?"

She nodded.

"Ianto, make sure Paul, or what ever his name is now, is safe. Tosh and I are going to check up on Hart."

"Wait. What about Rose Tyler." Tosh interject, earning herself confused looks.

"Right." Owen said. "Remember her from the Rattigan case?" he asked, continuing when he received nods from Ianto and Gwen and a affirmative noise from Jack.  
"She was there today. Tosh and I saw her. She took the bullet for Max here."

He nodded to Tosh, who brought out her cell phone, holding it up for them to see a picture on the display.  
"That's the tattoo she had on her arm. Owen thinks it has some kind of meaning that might clue us to who she is working for."

The picture showed the rough outlines of six letters, Ianto noticed.

  


>   
> T.A.R.D.I.S  
> 

  


It sounded vaguely familiar, he thought.  
"TARDIS. I heard that somewhere before." he muttered almost to himself.

"Where?"  
All eyes were on him, but he could only shrug helplessly.  
"I'm not sure."

"Well, alright then." Jack's voice was all business. "Gwen: Max is your responsibility."

She nodded and held a hand out for the boy to take as they left.

"Owen," Jack continued. "I want you to check on Miss Tyler, everything and anything that could give us any clue."

"On it, Jack."

"Ianto, Toshiko: I want you to go after Hart. Find out where he is and what he's doing."

***

Ianto didn't know why he expected anything else when he and Tosh walked out of the door and into the car park on the other side of the building.

Jack was standing there, leaning against Ianto's car, his intention clear.

"No." Ianto said firmly, before Jack could get one word out.

"Hello, Paul." Tosh stepped in before an argument could break out. Ianto saw Jack grimace at the name and he had to admit himself that it simply didn't fit the man.

"Nice to meet you again. My name is Toshiko Sato, but call me Tosh." she extended an hand to Jack, which he took happily, a big smile spreading over his face. Ianto could see the winkle of amusement sparkling in his eyes.

"Pleased to meet you to, Toshiko. But please call me James."

"I'll be waiting in the car then, shall I?" with that she took the key's from Ianto's hands and climbed into the backseat.

"Please don't do this, Jack." Ianto said as soon as the car door had closed.

"Ianto." Jack sighed. "I'm the only one here that knows what we're walking into. I'm the one who knows what we're looking for and what he might be planning."

"But..." Ianto opened his mouth to protest, only for Jack to keep talking.

"I know you don't want me there, I know you want to protect me. I know, okay? But you have to understand that I want to protect you too. Let's me do that, aright? I promise to be careful."

"Okay?" Jack asked, taking Ianto's hand in his own, bringing it up and placing it on his chest, right over his heart.

Ianto thought for a moment that cheesy romantic gestures were not going to get Jack anywhere, before he noticed it.

He spread his hand flat on Jack's chest, feeling the reassuring firmness of the bullet-proof vest underneath his palm.

"Okay." Ianto slowly nodded once, his eyes fixed on where his hand was on Jack's chest.

***

Even before Gwen turned the key in the lock she could smell the delicious scent of Rhys' lasagne.

"I hope you're hungry." she told the boy, before ushering him into the apartment.

"Rhys?" she called out. He stepped out of the kitchen a moment later, towel thrown over his shoulder, wooden spoon in his hand and a surprised expression on his face.

"You're home early." he pointed out. "Four hours early to be exact."

Gwen leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek.  
"I know. And I'll be gone in a bit again. Actually I'm just here to ask you a favour."

Her gaze fell to Max again and Rhys' eyes followed her.

"And who are you, young man?" Rhys leaned down extending his hand to the boy. "I hope you're hungry."

Once they were all fed and Max had happily agreed to stay, with a little persuasion in form of Rhys showing him just how many cartoon channels you could get over satellite TV.

"So how long is he going to stay then?" Rhys asked pulling Gwen aside before she could leave again. "And what else do I need to know?"

Gwen explained, then closed the door softly behind her, secure in the knowledge that knowing what he did now Rhys wouldn't let anything happen to the boy.

Maybe that was the final proof that she maybe didn't really need, if she was honest with herself, that Rhys was to be trusted with knowing about the true nature of her job, instead of half-lies that were covered up with police work.

And then there was the part of her brain that sounded just a bit too much like her mother that pointed out that watching the boy might be a good practice run.

No, she decided, that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

***

It took Owen three hour to track anything remotely related to this ominous T.A.R.D.I.S down.

And that was after visiting pretty much any tattoo place Cardiff had to offer, which had not only turned out for nought but had also caused him to spend all afternoon in the streaming rain.

Which left him now in not one of his best mood as he chased down dark and dank alley after alley, following nothing more than a shadow. Until he suddenly turned around a corner and stood facing a wall.

A solid wall. Yes, he had checked that.

In his defence he was getting desperate. Owen was sure he had seen Rose Tyler across the Roald Dahl Plass, seemingly appearing out of thin air only to disappear into a thick crowd of Japanese tourists.

He had been able to catch up with her as she had ducked into an small side street. Only to be lead on a wild goose chase through half of the city. At least if his sore feet had any say in it.

And now she was gone. She had turned the corner and had vanished into the wall.

"Right, Harper. Think!" Owen muttered under his breath. "Think."

As the rain become heavier, Owen started looking for sewer lids or any way exit an dead-end street. There wasn't one.

"She could have only gone underground." he mused to himself. "Or up?"

In an sudden fit of instinct he looked up, finding an rusty looking emergency fire ladder starting on the second story up, leading to the roof of the building.

'That's it', he thought. 'But how did she get up there?'

It seemed impossible to reach from the ground. A few trial jumps proofed just that.

Then Owen took a few steps back out of the alley. 'She had been running.' he thought.

With a mental smirk to Gwen's jibes about his gymnastic talents, he took off into a run and jumped. He managed to propel himself high enough to touch the lowest metal bar with just the tips of his fingers.

On the third try he was dangling in the air, his hands in a firm grip around the ladder.

'Well, then.' he thought and started climbing.

Once he reached the top Owen took a look around the roof and cursed. It was empty.  
"Well, fuck."

It was starting to get dark and he had just spend all day chasing through the city and climbing up roofs for nothing. Just Great.

Just as he turned around, ready to admit failure and climb down again and go back, he saw it.

On the roof of the building opposite of the alley he had come up sat a blue box. A 1960s-style London police box to be precise.

"What the hell?" he muttered under his breath. "That's inconspicuous, alight."

A look down the in the alley confirmed that the house he was currently on top of was the only one with an emergency fire ladder.

The alley wasn't too wide. It looked doable, Owen decided, close but definitely doable.

He took a good amount of steps back, before breaking into a run. Then he took a leap and hoped for the best.

If he was honest with himself he had to admit that he was just a bit surprised to actually hit the solid ground of the opposite roof top instead of the hard ground of the asphalt street below.

After twenty minutes of trying and failing to pick the lock of the blue box Owen was cursing and ready to give up. 'I really ought to take lessons from Tosh', he thought absently minded.

When he returned to his car, which turned out to be parked surprisingly close, he was soundly cursing the rain that had picked up, the fact that he had been lead around in circles and that he had close to nothing to show for it.

He was already sitting inside his car when he noticed a piece of paper stuck to the windshield of his car.

"If that's a parking ticket I'm going to murder someone." he cursed loudly before leaving the dryness of his car in order to retrieve the note.

Dripping a little bit more and cursing a lot more he finally returned to his car.

He didn't read the letter until he arrived back at the HUB.

***

"I don't like this." were the first words out of Ianto's mouth when they arrived at the place Tosh had managed to track Hart to.

Jack said nothing.

"James, are you sure about this?" Tosh asked tentatively, not sure her opinion was wanted. "You can just wait here, while Ianto and I check the site out."

"You wouldn't know what you are looking for. Or looking at for that matter." he stated, his voice hard and without any emotion betraying him. "You might miss something important."

With that he got out of the car and started off to a small banister allowing them to watch the bustle of the harbour spread out underneath them. There were dozens of ships, small ones, bigger ones, anything from cargo ships to dredgers or passenger ships.

"We're never going to find anyone here." Tosh exasperated.

"If he wants to lay low and possibly get any kind of shady business going he'd be in one of the cargo warehouses." Ianto pointed out, coming up next to Jack.

At his lover's curious glance and raised eyebrow he answered the unspoken question:  
"I've been growing up around here."

At least partially answered the question, he told himself.

"We need to get a closer look at the cargo bay then." Tosh decided.

"Well, we could always nick a couple of these disdainful overalls and play dress up worker." Jack grinned.

"Actually that's not an bad idea at all." Tosh decided. "It would get us close enough to figure out what's going on down there."

"You boys aren't afraid to get your hands dirty, are you?" she called over her shoulder grinning as she made her way down to the bay.

Not half an hour later Ianto found himself pressed almost inappropriately close to Jack, hidden from view between two large container units. Both of them had brown overalls in their hands, dirty with greasy black smudges, black working boots, sea green rough cotton shirts, equally dirty and to top it off a bright yellow hard hat.

And here he had thought those days were behind him.

"You'll look good enough to eat in those." Jack leered at him. "I won't be able to keep my hands to myself."

Ianto rolled his eyes and started to undo his tie. Only to have his hands stopped by Jack.  
"Let me." he placed a small kiss to Ianto's lips.

The quick mood changes were a sure sign of Jack's nerves, Ianto knew Jack long enough to recognize the signs.

So he pulled him closer and let the other man kiss him while he was being carefully undressed.

Jack slit the tie slowly from Ianto's neck and let it fall on top of the trash bags Toshiko had provided to hide their clothing in. He moved his hands down Ianto's shoulder, moving to unbutton his white shirt.

Ianto's hands came up starting to undress Jack in turn, keeping their lips connected all the while and keeping the kiss light, just a soft press of lips.

It didn't take long before Jack had rid him of his shirt and his trousers were held up for him to step out of.  
He toed his shoes off, watching Jack do the same, before reaching for their work clothes.

He was just doing up the last, top most button of Jack's work shirt over the bullet proof vest, pressing a last lingering kiss to Jack's skin, when he heard someone clear their throat.

He felt himself freeze, but seconds later he relaxed again, when he felt Jack chuckle softly.  
"Been standing there long, Toshiko?"

"Just making sure you two don't get too distracted." she returned Jack's grin.

 

"Why are we actually doing work?" Jack asked half an hour later.

"Because we would raise quite a few suspicions if we would just stand around and stare at every hot guys arse that walks by." Ianto quipped, causing Jack to completely unapologeticly raise his eyes from Ianto's backside.

"It's not my fault you look ridiculously hot in that outfit."

"Boys," Tosh admonished, "less flirting more actual work."

"Yes, mam." Jack saluted and Ianto rolled his eyes.

 

It was getting late afternoon when Jack leaned over oh so casually to Ianto as if to read the print on the clipboard he was holding. But instead of the quip he was expecting, Jack murmured:  
"See that red ship? The one that's loading at dock 35a?"

Ianto's eyes quickly scanned the cargo bay.  
"Yeah. The Merkin?"

"Yeah." Jack nodded. "Merkin was the name of John's pet poodle."

"The ship's set to leave to Dublin in three days." Ianto flipped through the shipping papers he was holding. "They got two warehouses. We need to act quick if we want to check them before everything is loaded."

Jack nodded. "Just no imprudent actions. If we're up against John Hart we need a plan. That's always been his weakness, he acts fast without thinking. If we go on this right, we got a chance to check him out without anyone noticing."

***

"Armed guards. ID badges." Tosh told them, once they sat together at the HUB.

Owen still wasn't back from trailing Rose Tyler.

'James' had left earlier, promising to be safe and fifteen minutes later Ianto had connected the call to Jack's office.

"Security looked pretty tight." Ianto agreed.

"This dock is like a fortress." Gwen was sitting pouring over the security prints Tosh had been able to pull from the servers of the company responsible.

"The security is handled by a company called TA. I've never heard off it." Tosh was saying. "They seem pretty small, Hart seems to be their only client."

"I'm guessing the company is fake." Jack said over the speakers. "Hart wouldn't rely on a company to do his security. Not if they might get wind of what he's doing in those warehouses. He got enough thugs to do the job for him."

"Right, so how do we get in?"

"I might have an idea." Gwen said suddenly. "The people working there. They're too many to know them all personally and if they just to the loading work for him then he will replace them regularly. Hence the ID's and tight security."

"We're not gonna get in even if we steal the ID papers and everything." Tosh was shaking her head. "When the three of us were there today, our covers were almost blown multiple times."

"I could get it." Ianto said and earned himself two disbelieving stares and he was sure he could feel Jack through the cameras.  
"I could." he repeated.

"No offence Ianto, but you're not exactly the kind of guy who would do a dirty job like working in the docks of Newport."

Ianto almost laughed out loud. There was so much his colleagues didn't know about him.

"There isn't enough time, we have to do this tomorrow night." Jack said. "Gwen, Tosh I want you to check the pubs surrounding the port. Find us one of the drivers and _borrow_ his ID and shipping papers."

" _The Treasure Chest_." Ianto said.

"What?" Tosh asked. Gwen was snickering.

" _The Treasure Chest_." Ianto repeated. "Some of the guys working at the mentioned it earlier."

"Thanks." Tosh replied before she and Gwen left for the stake out.

"Ianto," Jack called, his voice coming from both the speakers and the hallway in sync. "I want you to track Owen's location."

"On it." he called back.

"He's on a roof in the pouring rain." Ianto said by the way of greeting when he walked into Jack's office.

"Classy." Jack chuckled. He was standing by the window, a glass of liquor in his hand. Ianto closed the door behind him and took the second glass that was already standing on the desk next to the bottle of whiskey and poured himself a generous amount.

Jack had been in a weird mood all day, which was understandable everything considered. But now that the work was done his mood had obviously turned to maudlin.

"You know as an employer I have the right to pull a files of your previous employments. So anything in particular you want to tell me about?" Jack said quietly into the silence, his eyes still staring unseeing out of the window.

Not the conversation Ianto had been expecting, but he decided to go with it.  
"You can't pull files of jobs that were cash in the hand. And I think you know perfectly well what I was working as."

"It would have been nice to hear it from you, you know."

"Dammit, Jack." fucked up situation or not, Jack hadn't any moral high ground on him when it came to not telling things. "Don't go all 'big, mighty boss' on me, okay?! If you want to know these things then ask. But not by calling me into your office like a naughty schoolboy."

Ianto knocked back the rest of his drink and turned to leave.  
"I'm going home now, come find me when you're ready to talk. Properly."

***

Ianto sleepily opened his eyes when he heard a sound from downstairs. Moments later he heard the sound of footfalls coming up the stairs, he felt ridiculous for recognizing them as Jack's distinctive steps. Then the bedroom door creaked open. Ianto lay still, waiting, but nothing happened, Jack didn't come closer.

It had gotten dark outside. Ianto didn't know how long it had taken Jack to follow him, but he knew he must have fallen asleep waiting.

"You were supposed to come after me, you know." he finally said into the silence of their bedroom.

"Owen got back." Ianto could hear Jack shift. "Our mystery lady left him a note on his car after chasing him all over the city."

"I bet he had fun." Ianto grouched. "What did the note say?"

"That we're on the right trail going after Hart. A couple of other things. But we can go over that tomorrow."

"Okay."

"You were right." Jack said in answer.

"About what?" Ianto turned around, facing in the direction of the door where he assumed Jack to be standing. So he almost jumped out of his skin when the bed dipped beside him and a gentle hand covered his arm.

"This isn't one of our normal every day cases." Jack started. "You know that I try to keep our private life and our work as separate as possible."

Ianto nodded and leaned into Jack's touch, when the other man paused.

"I had to be careful. You have to understand that. Especially after what happened with Lisa."

'Of course I understand.' Ianto thought. He knew now after all who it was that Jack had been hiding from and more than that, he knew just how dangerous the man could turn out to be.

He could only hope that Hart would never be in any position to gain as much information as Lisa had. It had been his fault, he had to admit that much. He had been the one to go along with her plan, without looking into her motivation, blindly believing what she told him.

In the end he had been nothing more than a chess piece that she had moved into a position convenient for her and her agenda. He had betrayed Jack for her, but if it hadn't been for her he wouldn't have met Jack at all.

But still it hurt to think about what had happened five years ago. By mutual agreement he and Jack didn't talk about that night. Jack had let Lisa go under the condition she stayed away and quiet and he had forgiven Ianto's betrayal. The rest were memories laced with guilt on both sides that simply weren't brought up without the need to do so.

"Why are you bringing up Lisa now?" he asked quietly.

Jack sighed.  
"She might be involved in this."

"How?"

This could turn bad pretty quickly if she was involved, worse than bad. If Hart had the HALO Rings he might be able to find out who Jack was now, but not where. And Lisa was the key to just that.

"Jack?" Ianto prompted when his lover didn't answer.

"She might be involved in this." he repeated. Ianto felt Jack's hand find his and squeeze his fingers tightly.

"But how?" he whispered. He felt his heart clench in fear. The person that wanted to kill Jack and the one person that almost found him weren't a good combination in any way.  
"When Owen met her the other day?"

"It might not have been a coincidence after all." Jack sighed and pulled Ianto to lie down with him on the bed, wrapping his arms around his lover.

"Jack, we have to..." Ianto protested.

"There is nothing we can do right now." Jack interrupted. "We'll wait till tomorrow once we know more about what John is doing at the docks. Then we act."

Ianto lay awake most of the night, thinking about how much Lisa knew, about all the things that could happen, that could go wrong. Horrible scenario after horrible scenario played through his mind, causing him to curl himself closer to Jack's warm, reassuringly solid body.

***

The next evening Ianto was getting ready to smuggle Gwen, Owen and Tosh into the warehouses in the docks that John Hart had rented.  
He would drive a forklift truck with the boxes that contained his colleagues into the warehouse.  
He made Jack promise to stay home and safe three times and finally threatened with withholding sex should he come anywhere near the harbour that night.

Still when Ianto drove the truck down the huge lines of cargo boxes his eyes constantly seemed to search for Jack's form somewhere in the dusky dock.

He slowly came to a stop in front of the gates to the area Hart had rented. An official security guy looked him up and down, eyeing him wearily.  
"You new?" came a rough voice after a moment.

"Yeah." Ianto nodded. The key to lying was to not give unnecessary details, as soon as you started to fabricate stories, it started to get unbelievable.

"First day then?" the guard asked, checking over the papers Ianto had handed him.

"Yeah, trial actually."

The guard grunted in response and let him pass.

Unloading the boxes was easy. Making sure that there were no other boxes stacked on top of the three that held their hidden passengers was a little bit trickier.

"Thanks, mate." he called to the guy who had been helping him unload the last of the boxes. "I'll get the last one myself."

He watched the man disappear around the corner and the lugged the last box down the ramp into the warehouse.

He gave a quick knock to one of the boxes and a moment later three boxes started to open and his colleagues were climbing out.

"Can we get bigger boxes next time?" Gwen asked, stretching her cramped arms and legs.

"Can we just get this over with?" Ianto asked.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist, teaboy."

"Hey!" Tosh interrupted sharply. "We're _not_ here for the fun of it. So if we could all remember that we're professionals here and do our _job_."

"Sorry." came from the other three grouchily.

"Great. Owen, Gwen check the area, try and find out anything you can. Ianto and I will look for the rings." Tosh instructed.

"Do you really think he just leaves them lying around?" Ianto asked, watching Owen and Gwen's retreating backs.

"No, but I don't think it would be good for either of us to be caught by Hart, do you?"

Ianto followed Tosh down dark, quiet corridor after dark, quiet corridor. Each of them leading deeper into a labyrinth of warehouses filled with cargo boxes.

Empty cargo boxes, as it turned out. They had opened dozens and all had turned up nothing but empty.

"Maybe he really is building a labyrinth." Ianto voiced his thoughts.

"It would make sense." Tosh seemed thoughtful. "A maze seems like an ideal place to hide something. But how do we find the right way? And how do we find out where we have to go in the first place?"

"Well, supposedly if you always turn left you find the ways out." Ianto said. "Or we could just take take a look from above." he added looking up. It wouldn't be too hard to get on top of the boxes. They were placed back to back it would be easy enough to just see where they were leading.

Ianto's knees ached and the muscles in his arms were strained once they had both reached the top of the box.

"Right." he said, standing up and taking a look around.

"So," Tosh came to stand next to him. "basically this it's just a matter of getting there." she pointed to a lone container unit in the middle of the warehouse.

Ten minutes later they were climbing off the containers again, this time in the right place.

"Well, then..." Ianto strode forwards only to be pulled back by Tosh quite roughly.

"Stop." she all but shouted. "See that dead rat over there."

Ianto pulled a disgusted face as he spotted a dead rat lying right in front of the cage. When he turned around he saw Tosh holding her gun, aiming straight at the container.

The bullet hit the container unit with a loud sound, but not before causing a ripple of electric current to become visible.

"Fuck." he swore. That would have been more than painful.

It took Tosh one well aimed throw of a miniature explosive device and the problem was solved with the generator supplying the container going up in smoke.  
Though it wasn't exactly the most quiet method of action.

"We'd better hurry before anyone comes running." with that Ianto broke open the container unit.

It was filled with dozens of boxes.  
"Great. I start on this end you on the other?" he suggested.

It turned out the be a useless plan after they opened the first two boxes and found them all full of rings, all different sizes and materials.

"Open them all." Ianto instructed after a moment of thought. "I'll be right back."

He hurried to the container units opposite of where the had come in and squeezed through a small opening between two of them. When he returned moments later Tosh had wrenched almost all the remaining boxes open.

"A firehose?" she asked, gesturing to the hose Ianto was carrying.

"Those rings are gold, silver or platinum. The HALO rings are pure titanium. The chips should be surrounded by a hollow core that prevents dermal induction." he grinned and stepped into the container unit. "If the density of the object is less than that of the substance in which it is immersed..." with that he turned on water on the flooded each of the boxes.

"... it floats." Tosh finished for him.

A moment later two rings slowly surfaced in the box right next to them.

Ianto snatched them up.  
"Come on. Let's get out of here."

"What's the rush, eye candy?"

Ianto felt himself freeze, recognizing the now familiar voice of John Hart.

Ianto turn about just in time to see Hart gesture with a gun. But it wasn't pointed at him. It was pointed at Jack.

'I'm going to kill him.' Ianto thought while desperately trying to find a way to get his lover out of harms way.

"Well, go over to your friends, Jackie." Hart instructed in a faux sweet voice.

Jack slowly made his way next to Ianto and Tosh. His eyes were fixed on Ianto's with a apologetic glance.  
Ianto gave him a tiny nod. It wouldn't do to yell at him right now. First he had to get him out of here and make sure the was unhurt and safe, then he could yell at Jack for breaking his promise to stay safe.

"Why don't you make yourselves comfortable." Hart continued. "You might as well stay a while."

Ianto was well aware of the guns he and Tosh had, he just hoped Hart hadn't noticed them. And while he wasn't sure if Jack was armed, he hoped that he was at least wearing his bullet proof vest.

"I mean you've only been here half an hour." Hart was grinning now. "I've waited for you... as a matter of fact I've waited for you two thousand nine hundred and twenty days, Paul."

"That's four hundred and seventeen weeks." Hart was coming slowly closer to them, taking step after step. His gun remained steadily trained on Jack's head.

Ianto wanted to step in front of his lover. He knew he would do so in an heartbeat should Hart shoot.

"That's ninety six months." Hart had come to a still stand a few feet in front of them. He cocked the gun, the safety was off now.

"That's eight years." Hart slowly moved his finger over the trigger. "But enough about me. What about you, Paul. How have you been? How has life been for _Captain Jack Harkness_?"

Ianto could hear Tosh gasp softly next to him. Jack didn't move a muscle. Ianto wasn't sure if it was because he was scared or not.

Then to a small shaky breath, Ianto would have missed hadn't he been desperately waiting for any reaction from Jack.  
"Pretty good actually. How's life been in prison?"

Hart ignored him.  
"And you," he addressed Ianto and Tosh. "Got a lot of nerve coming here and stealing from me."

"Stealing _back_ is more like it." Tosh shot back.

"Give me the rings." he held his hand out expectantly to Ianto.

Ianto lowered his gaze, his eyes darted quickly across the room. The power switch to turn off the light in the entire warehouse was just a few feet from him. The bullet magazine Tosh had fired earlier was right next to his foot. They could make it.

"Give. Us. The. Rings." Hart pronounced every single word, talking as if to a child or a particularly slow person.

Before Ianto had time to wonder about the use of 'us' in Hart's sentence he saw more than a dozen men coming out behind Hart. Most of the were carrying guns, some metal chains or crowbars, some even baseball bats.

'Right, change of plans.' Ianto thought. He fought against the urge to catch Jack's eye as he held his hand out with the rings for Hart to take.

He felt Jack stiffen beside him and for a moment he thought that Jack might stop him. But Tosh was fast enough, grabbing Jack's wrist and silently shaking her head.

"Good choice." Hart took the two rings from Ianto's palm and pocketed them.

"Don't lose those." Tosh told him. "We'll be taking them back in about..." she seemed to think for a moment. "... forty eight seconds."

Hart snorted disbelievingly.  
"I've been hoping one day I'd get to see you again." he told Jack. "And watch you die."

"Keep dreaming." With that Ianto kicked the magazine up, it hit the power switch with a zap, plunging the entire warehouse into darkness.

Dozens of gun started firing at them simultaneously. In the flashes of light coming off the guns firing at hitting the cargo unit behind them, Ianto grabbed Jack's hand and dragged him out of the line of fire.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Tosh do the same.

"Lights!" he heard Hart shout. "Someone turn the fucking lights back on."

Jack and him came to a stand behind Hart's men.

Ianto ran a quick hand over Jack's chest finding him wearing the bullet proof vest underneath his clothes, but no gun.

He had pressed his own into Jack's hands, when he felt Tosh's slim hand grab his own. She tapped a quick staccato against his skin.  
 _Twenty men plus Hart. Five with guns. Hart's unarmed._

 _I go for the rings. You and Jack keep his men in check. Jack has my gun._ Ianto answered just as quickly.

Moments later the lights came back on.

Ianto kicked the man right in front of him. Hitting him square in the back and sending him stumbling into the electric charge of the container unit that had come back on too.

He risked a quick glance to Jack, only to see him firing two quick bullets right into the kneecaps of one of the men, sending him sprawling on the floor.

Relived that what he knew to be Jack's army training had kicked in, Ianto turned back to his own fights just in time to duck when a crowbar came his way.

A sharp elbow to the face and ramming the crowbar back into the man's own ribs, Ianto made his way over to Hart moments later.

He was again ducking in the last second before one of Hart's fists hit him in the face.

"You think you know him, don't you, eye candy?" Hart taunted. "But the truth is you know nothing about him."

"I know a lot more about Jack than you do." Ianto told him calmly, refusing to let himself be riled up by Hart.

" _I_ am the only one here that knows him." with that Hart was lunging himself at Ianto again.

Ianto managed to dodge him again and land a knee in Hart's stomach, only to receive a punch to his jaw seconds later himself.

He had to get to the rings.

He was pretty sure the elbow he managed to fit to Hart's face broke his nose, but a moment later his second of victory was over when Hart had him bodily push back into the container wall.  
His head hit the metal hard, causing him to wince.

Before he could get his orientation back Hart's fists hit him in the stomach.

A hard punch to Hart's face made the other man stumble back, but not before he could grab a hand full of fabric where is trouser pockets were, ripping not only the cloth but grasping the rings from underneath.

Ianto blinked surprised when Hart's next attack at him was stopped by the butt of a gun hitting him square across the head and he went down with a shout.

Ianto looked up into Jack's face, seeing his grim expression.  
"Alright?" he asked curtly. "You got the rings?"

Ianto nodded to both and pushed himself off the wall.

"Let's get out of here then."

The ran over where Tosh was already on a wooden hoist. Cutting the rope keeping it down, she set it into motion going up fast.  
Ianto jumped on, pulling Jack with him. One well aimed shot and the were out through the ceiling window.

"Owen and Gwen?" Jack panted out as they ran across the roof, slithering down the roofing tile at as much too fast pace. But Ianto could already hear the shouts of Hart's men closing in behind them.

"Oh, shit!" he cursed when Tosh went down rain water downpipe.

"Back there!" he shouted to Jack, when he heard shots coming from the far side of the buildings and saw two figures he identified as Gwen and Owen running towards them.

Jack nodded and followed him down the pipe to the ground.

Moments later the five of them were running fast through the dark narrow aisles between the dock buildings.

"They're closing in too fast." Gwen yelled, looking over her shoulder.

Jack took the man closest to them down with a well aimed shot.  
"There a boat in the bay." he shouted. Seconds later he tossed a set of keys to Owen.

Suddenly Tosh ran over to the side of one of the buildings, coming to a stop. There was a gas tank and she was yanking at the wheel keeping it closed.

Jack ran over to her, taking over.  
"Go!" he shouted back at the rest of them, fixing Ianto with a stern stare when he looked like he was going to stay behind.

Ianto took off, running after the other, looking behind himself every second or so the check if Jack was coming.

Moments later the four of them jumped into the small motorboat sitting in the bay.

"Come on." Ianto muttered impatiently, when Jack wasn't right behind them, running a hand through his hair frantically.

Owen had started the motor in the meantime.  
"What is _he_ doing here anyway?"

"Owen, don't." Tosh interrupted before Ianto could.

Ianto almost jumped out of his skin when Jack jumped over the railing into the boat.

"Hit it!" he yelled to Owen, who immediately took the boat drive, taking the out of the bay.

"Are you okay?" Ianto asked once Jack was sitting down next to him in the back of the boat.

Jack gave him a shaky nod.  
"Yeah, I'm okay."

But Ianto was pretty sure he was anything but.

***

Ianto carefully patted the bed beside him when Jack exited the bathroom, motioning for him to sit down next to him.

"You're limping." Ianto pointed out quietly.

"It's nothing." but Ianto noticed how he was keeping his weight of his right foot and how an expression of relief crossed his face as he sat down.

"Right." Ianto sighed. "Just like the second degree burn on your left arm?"

"I've had worse."

"That's not the point." Ianto felt himself getting frustrated.

He had promised himself that he wouldn't get angry with Jack, not after he'd seen the dejected look on his face after he had gotten into the boat.

"Jack." he tried again, gentler this time. "Talk to me. Please."

"He said..." Jack took a shaky breath. "He said he kill you. All of you. He said he'd make me watch."

"Shit." Ianto breathed.

"You were right. Again." Jack gave a laugh, that sounded just too much like a sob. "I should have stayed away. By trying to make sure you were alright I got you in even deeper danger than before."

Ianto felt his heart break for his lover.  
"No, you didn't." he whispered. "This is my job. I knew that it would be dangerous when I signed up for it."

"This isn't a case anymore. This is my ex on a revenge spree. " Jack's voice sounded bitter.

"Jack, please. Let's just..." he sighed. Jack needed time. "Let me just bandage that up." he gestured to Jack's injuries.

 

It was three hours later when Ianto frowned in his sleep but didn't wake when the warm body wrapped around his disentangled itself and moved off the bed. Either did he wake to the soft kiss to his forehead nor the words, gently whispered into his skin.  
"I love you and I'm sorry."

When he woke up in the morning and the other side of the bed empty and cold his frown deepened, but it wasn't until he found the rest of the house just as empty and as well as the parking lot of the HUB he reached after a frantic drive, that it hit Ianto that Jack was gone.

He all but fell through the door to Jack's office. The text messages to his team colleagues were already send out, they would arrive any moment now.

And Ianto didn't know how to explain any thing.

There was a simple white letter on Jack's desk. It had Ianto's name written across it.

He picked it up with shaky fingers.

***

"He's gone." were the first words out of his mouth when the door to the conference room opened behind him. He didn't even bother to turn around and see who had entered.

"Oh Ianto." came Tosh's voice full of sympathy.

"He doesn't want us to get hurt." his hands crumpled up the letter he was holding. He knew he would smooth it out again later.

"Where do we go from here?" she asked.

"I don't know." Ianto had never felt so lost, without any plan before. "I really don't know."

Before he could say anything else or Tosh could answer, they heard footfalls coming up the stairs. Moments later Gwen and Owen came into the room.

"Alright. What's happened?" Gwen asked.

Ianto decided he had never loved Tosh as much as he did the moment she straightened up and announced:  
"I just spoke to Jack. There are no new leads. For now he wants us to find out how Hart broke out of prison."

"But he didn't break out of prison, did he?" Gwen asked.

"No, he was released." Tosh answered. "What we need to find out is how."

"Who would have the power to pull something like that off?" Owen wondered.

"The Justice department, the D.A.'s office, the S.I.S, a high-ranking police officer." Gwen listed. "The Prime Minister, the Queen – do you want me to go on?"

They all seemed to jump when the doorbell rang.

"It's Frobisher." Ianto explained. "Jack arranged for him to come and pick up the rings last night after we got back."

Half an hour later John Frobisher was securely storing the two rings Ianto had taken from Hart the other night in his own pocket.

"Thank you for securing the rings. I think we can all breathe a little easier now." Frobisher smiled at them, making his way to the exit of the conference room.  
"It's been a pleasure." he said, shaking each their hands in turn. "I would hope to work with you again. But not too soon." with that he made to leave.

"Oh, hey." Owen called after him. "Your keys." he picked up a key chain off the table top, throwing it for Frobisher to catch. He did without hesitation, catching them easily over his head with one hand.

He took a confused look at them.  
"These aren't mine." with that he threw them back and left.

"That should have hurt like hell." Owen declared as soon as Frobisher had left the building. "A couple of fractured ribs my arse."

"Of course." Tosh whispered. "He had one ring. He just needed the other."

"He wanted to fake his own death so he wouldn't be suspected." Gwen theorized. "Then we came into play."

"He needed time for a new plan." Owen said, his voice thoughtful.  
"So he set up Hart and then turned him loose on James to distract us." Tosh finished.

"I think we're definitely onto something." Ianto agreed. "But it's only speculation at this point. We need proof."

"Well then, let's get just that." Gwen said.

***

Tracking Frobisher's car turned out to be a lot more easy than Ianto would have anticipated.

He reminded himself that Toshiko Sato was one scary woman and that he was really glad that she was on his side.

Moments later they were listening in on Frobisher's phone call.

 _"I'm calling from my car. The line is secure."_

"Not anymore." Tosh sing-songed with a smirk on her face.

 _"My end of the deal is done. The Angels are off the case."_

"Off the case, my arse." Owen grumbled.

 _"I have the rings. I'll drop by in an hour."_

The call ended. But a moment later a second call came over the line.

 _"The deal's on. Eight o'clock just as we discussed."_

"So, Frobisher is working with a partner. They're selling the list off later tonight." Gwen summarized.

"Well, then. Let's invite ourselves to that meeting."

 

An hour later the four of them were standing in the middle of the Plass. Frobisher was on top of the roof of a nearby building.

They couldn't see the person he was talking to, who ever is was was cleverly hidden in the shadows. They couldn't make out their voices or what was said either, but from the way Frobisher was gesturing it was clearly an argument.

Moments later the four of them gasped, breaking into a run at the same time. The sound of bullets being fired rang through the air.

Frobisher seemed to stagger for a moment before falling over the ledge of the roof. He would have been dead before he hit the ground, Ianto knew, the bullets had hit him straight in the chest.

They heard the screams form the crowd below, but there were already all the way up to the roof. They came to an abrupt stop in front of the person, now slowly stepping out of the shadows.

She had dark skin, short cropped black hair, her eyes accentuated with back khole liner and her lips stained red. She was wearing a black blouse and black leather pants. She would have looked stunning if it weren't for the two golden guns in her hands and the disdainful expression on her face.

She stopped a few feet away from them.

"Lisa!" Ianto breathed, being the first to react.

"You of all people should know that I was never really good at that partner thing." she smirked, lifting two handguns, pointing them both on Ianto.  
"Hello Angels." she addressed the rest of them.

"Lisa Hallett." Owen spat. "Tell me one thing though: Why?"

"Why be an angel when you can play god?" she laughed.

"But you were an angel." Gwen argued.

"I _was_ an angel, that's right." she said. "But I'm no longer taking orders from a speaker box. And it looks like the main person of this event is still missing."

But a second later she pointed her gun behind her over her shoulder.  
"Or not."

Ianto could see a figure in the shadows just behind her. A very familiar figure.

"Do come over here and join your little Team, Jack." she sneered.

Out of the corner of his eyes Ianto could see Gwen's eye go wide and Owen look around carefully.

Jack stepped forward, he held a gun trained at Lisa's head the entire time.  
"Trust me on one thing Lisa. The last time I held a gun to your head I didn't pull the trigger, but told you to walk away and never come back. I did this out of courtesy and respect for the woman that used to work for me, not the person you had become, and I'm using person loosely here. But I'm thinking I might have made a mistake. A mistake I can revert anytime."

Lisa clapped her hands and laughed, high and fake.  
"Very impressive, really." she taunted. "But I know one thing, Jack. You don't have it in you to kill someone. Or why else would your _butler_ here still be alive after betraying you like he did?"

"Oh, but he didn't betray me, did he?" Jack was smiling at her humourlessly. "He betrayed _you_."

"He did" she agreed. "And he's paying for that now!"

Ianto found himself reaching for his gun. He realized that he wasn't opposed to hurting his ex-fiancée as much as he probably should be. The one thing on his mind was that he had to stop her from selling that list and endangering more innocent people like she had done with Jack, and to protect Jack like he had promised his lover.

Lisa had always been an extraordinary shooter. So Ianto wasn't the least bit surprised when two hard shots hit him in the stomach before he could even register that Lisa had aimed her guns back at him.

The impact made him stumble to the ground, Jack's panicked scream was the last thing he heard before his world went black.

 

Ianto slowly came too. His ears were buzzing and his sight was fuzzy.

God, how he hated to get shot. No matter how good the bullet proof vest were it still hurt like hell afterwards.

He slowly turned his head to the right and his eyes fell on Jack's unconscious form. At least he hoped his lover was only unconscious.

Taking a deep breath Ianto pushed himself half up and inched closer to Jack.  
No blood, was the first thing he noticed.

He gently curled his hand around Jack's.  
Warm, his skin was warm.

It seemed to take forever, but finally he felt his fingers being squeezed.

"That bitch!" came Gwen's outraged cry a moment later. "That leather jacket was a gift from Rhys and now there's a bullet size hole in it."

"Better the jacket than you." Owen told her over a coughing fit from Tosh. "I'm sure Rhys will understand that."

"Everyone alright?" Jack asked, receiving four affirmative voices.

"So," Gwen stated. "you're Jack then?"

"Yeah." Jack slowly sat up beside Ianto, running a reassuring hand down his lover's back.

"Okay," Owen said. "But which parts of what are actually true?"

He was angry, Ianto noted, understandably angry.

"Everything was true." Jack answered. "I never lied about what happened, I just lied about who I am."

"You had to." Gwen was looking at him with something akin to understanding dawning in her eyes. "To protect yourself."

"To protect myself and those I love." Jack agreed, fixing Ianto with a glance.

Ianto felt his heart swell, squeezing Jack's hand in his.  
'I love you too.' he thought.

"Well, right then." Jack said, getting to his feet. "Let's get this case sorted."

 

"Wait a minute!" Owen exclaimed, when they were almost back at the car. He fixed Tosh with a suspicious glare.  
"You didn't seem too surprised to find out that teaboy here was shagging the boss."

"I wasn't my secret to tell." was all Tosh answered. She earned herself a thankful smile from Jack.

And an entire car drive of nagging from both Owen and Gwen.

***

"This is never going to work." Owen commented to the blonde standing on the roof next to him. "They're not gonna fall for it."

"Just wait and see." was the only replay he got from Rose Tyler.

Half an hour later the door to the roof slowly opened and Lisa stepped outside. Her face seemed to freeze as she took in the empty roof.

Empty but for a telescope set out in the center.

She seemed to hesitate for a long moment and Ianto felt Gwen holding her breath next to him. Then Lisa took a few steps forward and stepped right up the the telescope.

He knew the she would now have a good look at all the major crime families being arrested on the roof opposite of them. The one million pounds they had each brought to buy they information the HALO Rings held still in their hands.

"The Kleinhardt gambit." she stated. "Classic!"

Ianto took a deep breath, steadied his gun in his hand and stepped up behind her, Gwen at his side. Out of the corners of his eyes he saw Tosh and Jack come in from left and right of Lisa, their guns too trained at her steadily.

"And apparently still effective." was Tosh's comment.

"Well," Lisa slowly turned around, a self-satisfied smile was gracing her face. "There's always plan B." with that she pulled an electric trigger from her pocket.

They had just enough time to take a quick look around and realize that they were essentially surrounded by explosive devices. But before Lisa could press the button the door behind them burst open.

John Hart came marching through, gun in his hand and firing before he had even finished his sentence:  
"Did you really think you could throw me off with that cheap trick?!"

Owen and Rose were hot on Hart's and his men's heels.

Jack and Gwen were instantly under fire from Hart's men. Hart himself went after Tosh.

Ianto had only a moment to register what was going on before Owen had yanked him behind a pillar and out of the rain of bullets coming from Lisa.

"Fuck!" he swore, reaching for his own gun.

Ten minutes later Ianto decided that a roof had been a pretty bad idea. His fingers were raw from scrambling for surface and his back hurt from being pressed into the stone ledge at an odd angle, but worst off all was the fact that he couldn't breath with Lisa's hand tightly wrapped around his throat.

"You really thought I would just walk away like that?" she spat angrily. "When I had come _this_ close to destroying Torchwood once and for all?"

Only three metres from him Rose kicked two men off the roof, their bodies hitting the ground with a sickening sound.

Lisa pressed harder against him, causing Ianto to lose the little grip he still had preventing him from falling down. Lisa was now the only thing holding him still up.

"Don't worry, _dear_." she told him sweetly. "It won't be a minute and you can join them."

"I don't think so." Owen's voice came from behind her suddenly.

Lisa's eyes went wide and suddenly a hand gripped Ianto's tightly pulling him upwards just as Lisa went over him and over the ledge.

"That was brilliant." Owen told Rose just as she let go if Ianto's hand. The wide grin the was met with the statement told Ianto that he was intruding.  
He saw the two of them move in for a kiss as he rushed over to help Gwen, who was losing badly against Hart's kicks to her rips.  
Not that he wasn't happy for Owen to finally find someone, but his timing sucked.

He caught up with Gwen at the same time as Tosh did. But that moment he caught sight of Jack's body lying suspiciously still on the ground just a few feet from him.

He stopped, a mistake as it turned out when the butt of Hart's gun hit him hard on the head, sending him stumbling onto the floor.

He suddenly he heard Owen shout behind him. Ianto turned and saw Lisa's bruised face show up over the ledge of the building. How she had managed to catch her fall, he didn't know.

An manic grin spread across her face as she held up a grenade. Slowly she depress the striker lever and pulled the pin, but before she could hurl the grenade Rose had flung herself at her, taking them both back over the edge of the building and down.

Seconds later a huge explosion rocked the entire building.

Gwen and Tosh were holding Owen back as he screamed and tried to get to Rose. It was too late.

Ianto noticed a second too late that he had been distracted by the explosion.

A shot rung right next to him.

A body fell down next to him, the head wound bleeding out quickly.

Jack sat down next to him, gun still in his hand. He rested his head against Ianto's shoulder and let out a deep breath.  
"It's over."

"It's over." Ianto agreed just as quietly.

 **The End.**


End file.
